diff --git a/common/arg.cpp b/common/arg.cpp
index 57b0d562a..126970950 100644
--- a/common/arg.cpp
+++ b/common/arg.cpp
@@ -133,7 +133,8 @@ static void common_params_handle_model_default(
         const std::string & model_url,
         std::string & hf_repo,
         std::string & hf_file,
-        const std::string & hf_token) {
+        const std::string & hf_token,
+        const std::string & model_default) {
     if (!hf_repo.empty()) {
         // short-hand to avoid specifying --hf-file -> default it to --model
         if (hf_file.empty()) {
@@ -163,7 +164,7 @@ static void common_params_handle_model_default(
             model = fs_get_cache_file(string_split<std::string>(f, '/').back());
         }
     } else if (model.empty()) {
-        model = DEFAULT_MODEL_PATH;
+        model = model_default;
     }
 }
 
@@ -299,9 +300,9 @@ static bool common_params_parse_ex(int argc, char ** argv, common_params_context
     }
 
     // TODO: refactor model params in a common struct
-    common_params_handle_model_default(params.model,             params.model_url,             params.hf_repo,             params.hf_file,             params.hf_token);
-    common_params_handle_model_default(params.speculative.model, params.speculative.model_url, params.speculative.hf_repo, params.speculative.hf_file, params.hf_token);
-    common_params_handle_model_default(params.vocoder.model,     params.vocoder.model_url,     params.vocoder.hf_repo,     params.vocoder.hf_file,     params.hf_token);
+    common_params_handle_model_default(params.model,             params.model_url,             params.hf_repo,             params.hf_file,             params.hf_token, DEFAULT_MODEL_PATH);
+    common_params_handle_model_default(params.speculative.model, params.speculative.model_url, params.speculative.hf_repo, params.speculative.hf_file, params.hf_token, "");
+    common_params_handle_model_default(params.vocoder.model,     params.vocoder.model_url,     params.vocoder.hf_repo,     params.vocoder.hf_file,     params.hf_token, "");
 
     if (params.escape) {
         string_process_escapes(params.prompt);
diff --git a/examples/server/server.cpp b/examples/server/server.cpp
index d1e8ee829..f35206d7b 100644
--- a/examples/server/server.cpp
+++ b/examples/server/server.cpp
@@ -1728,13 +1728,16 @@ struct server_context {
         add_bos_token = llama_vocab_get_add_bos(vocab);
         has_eos_token = llama_vocab_eos(vocab) != LLAMA_TOKEN_NULL;
 
-        if (!params_base.speculative.model.empty()) {
+        if (!params_base.speculative.model.empty() || !params_base.speculative.hf_repo.empty()) {
             SRV_INF("loading draft model '%s'\n", params_base.speculative.model.c_str());
 
             auto params_dft = params_base;
 
             params_dft.devices      = params_base.speculative.devices;
+            params_dft.hf_file      = params_base.speculative.hf_file;
+            params_dft.hf_repo      = params_base.speculative.hf_repo;
             params_dft.model        = params_base.speculative.model;
+            params_dft.model_url    = params_base.speculative.model_url;
             params_dft.n_ctx        = params_base.speculative.n_ctx == 0 ? params_base.n_ctx / params_base.n_parallel : params_base.speculative.n_ctx;
             params_dft.n_gpu_layers = params_base.speculative.n_gpu_layers;
             params_dft.n_parallel   = 1;